FOXBOROUGH - Four games in the books. Buffalo is up next in prime time, on the road.

Sitting at 2-2, the outlook for the Patriots went from grim at 1-2, back to hopeful.

They didn’t just beat Carolina. They beat the stuffing out of the Panthers.

The 42-13 rout allowed the Patriots to get off to their best start in five years.

At roughly the quarter pole of the season, the Patriots have risen off the mat. They’ve stepped up in weight class.

Now comes the fun part: seeing how close they are to getting back to the postseason.

In his post-game remarks, Patriots coach Mike Vrabel pointed to the Bills as the next litmus test for his team.

“Whatever you do in one week, it doesn’t really matter. It’s about what you do the next week moving forward. Hopefully we take that same approach w

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